Sort it out, folks, points mean prizes

Carl O'Malley

If, unlike me, you didn’t entirely forget about Fantasy Football as soon as the first ball was kicked in Poland on June 8th, you may still be in with a chance to win stuff. So get your act together and remove Shay Given from your side.

Marketing guru Paul Healy explains…

“Euro 2012 is almost over, and while it was a disappointing campaign for Ireland, at least we had our Fantasy Football teams to shout for in the knockout stages of the tournament.

If your fantasy team hasn’t been performing to the ability that you had envisioned at the beginning of the competition, don’t fret- there may be only two games left but remember that double points are up for grabs in the knockout stages.

As it stands ahead of the semi-final between Germany and Italy, Manuel Neuer (GER) is still the most popular goalkeeper in the Fantasy Football tournament, which is strange considering that his total points so far amount to -2 (yes, that’s a minus). More worryingly, however, is the fact that Shay Given (IRE) is the fifth most popular goalkeeper in the game. My advice- switch him with Iker Casillas (SPA) who is one of the highest scoring players in the game having conceded only one goal in Euro 2012 so far.

In terms of defenders, 50 per cent of you have Philipp Lahm (GER) on your team. Lahm was a good pick considering that he scored against Greece. His German defence partners however, like Neuer, currently have a tournament total of -2 since they have conceded four goals, including two against Greece in the Quarter-finals.

The Spanish team have kept four clean sheets in the tournament which is good news for anyone who had a number of their defenders since the beginning of the game. Spanish defender Jordi Alba is actually the highest scoring player in the Fantasy Football game with four clean sheets and an assist.

Some of the other high scoring players in the Fantasy Football tournament are Mario Gomez (GER) who has three goals and an assist so far, and Xabi Alonso of Spain who has two goals.

Don’t forget that you can make a total of 10 transfers throughout the knockout stages and your nation quota increases from two players per nation to four players per nation. Therefore you should be aiming to have four Spanish players on your team ahead of the final, and four players from either Germany or Italy, depending on which one gets through the semi-final.